Comic book women

Kalinara has a post up called Strange thoughts about Female Characters in Green Lantern Books that reminded me a little of me.

For years, I have habitually cringed a bit when a new female character (or, hell, even an existing character who's new to the title) is introduced in a comic I read.

It's not that I don't like female characters, or that I don't want them in my comics. Far from it.

But when a new woman shows up in a comic book (and Kalinara is right, it's usually a single-character title featuring a male character, but it happens in team books as well), there's a pretty good chance that she is there to be a love interest.

Maybe it's love at first sight.

Maybe it's a colleague, and they'll end up pining for each other in thought balloons for six or eight issues first--but the main way the two relate will be romantically.

Maybe it'll be something unrequited in one direction or the other--but the drama introduced will be in some sense romantic.

But chances are, if it's a new woman in the comic, someone is going to be hot for someone pretty soon.

(Unless, of course, she's not portrayed as conventionally attractive. For example, Tony Stark's old secretary Mrs. Arbogast, who was an awesome character. She could be awesome because she was old and a bit chubby and wore glasses--not to mention married--so she could be written without the romantic thing in mind.)

Why should I become invested in a new character who could be cool on her own when I know that she's only going to be around as long as she's the main character's girlfriend (and with some main characters that gives her a very short character lifespan indeed)?

Anyway. Its also not that I mind the characters I read about having romantic relationships. Plenty of good stories and characterization have that as their basis. But, you know, when a new woman always means a new romance, that's pretty tedious.

This isn't as pronounced a trend as it was in years past, of course. I can, for example, enjoy Soranik Natu in Green Lantern Corps without wondering who the authors have planned for her to hook up with. (Granted that GLC is a team book and thus more likely to feature autonomous female characters.) But Kainara's example of Cowgirl is a pretty apt one. I kind of liked her when she was introduced. But I would have been happier if she'd remained a colleague--because a colleague is more likely to stay around for a while. Now that she's a "girlfriend," she's more likely to disappear and never be heard from again.